1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to internetworking. More specifically, the present invention pertains to controlling multimedia communications over data networks.
2. Related Art
Global computer networks, such as the Internet, provide a myriad of opportunities for the opinion research industry. Opinion gathering tools, such as dial polls and surveys, can be developed to reach millions of individuals to extract their positions and predispositions toward a variety of topics and issues. Online polls and surveys enable respondents to furnish input and view the reactions of other respondents instantly. An example of an opinion research system that provides real time opinion gathering is described in the '624 application. The opinion research system of the '624 application enables a plurality of online respondents to view an event and participate in an opinion poll. The respondents receive real time feedback on their client displays that indicate each respondent's opinion value as well as the composite opinion value for the entire panel.
A challenge to Internet-based opinion research systems is the ability to effectively manage online sessions having very large panel sizes while maintaining continuous data interchanges between the server and clients and supplying the most current and accurate opinion values. Although the standard Internet Protocol (IP) (defined in Internet Standard (STD) 5, Request for Comments (RFC) 791 (Internet Architecture Board)), has been developed to govern communications over public and private Internet backbones, the protocol does not guarantee quality of service (QoS). Bandwidth availability, latency, and data loss can impede the effectiveness of opinion gathering and substantially hinder a respondent's ability to receive and comprehend the data in a real time environment.
Typically, IP networks lack sufficient infrastructure to permit a computer application to reserve the requisite bandwidth to communicate over a computer network. The amount of available bandwidth depends on numerous factors, such as the time of day and locality of the client or server. The packet size for the data that is being transmitted is another limiting factor. A significant amount of efficiency can be lost due to packet overhead that contains substantial header information. If the client or server is not able to reserve sufficient bandwidth, client-server communications can suffer from substantial data delay or loss. Therefore, an opinion research server's ability to effectively interact with a respondent's computer and provide real time updates can be adversely affected by bandwidth availability.
As intimated, packet overhead manifests larger bandwidth requirements. One possible solution to reducing packet overhead is to buffer and aggregate the frames into a single data packet (e.g., IP datagram or protocol data unit (PDU)). However, buffering the frames can also produce data delay or latency. Generally, latency increases proportionally to the number of frames being buffered. Data transmissions for electronic mail (email) or facsimile messages generally can tolerate delays in receiving the data packets without sacrificing QoS. However, during real time communications, delays in receiving data packets can significantly impair the accuracy and completeness of the transmitted data. In real time opinion research systems, such delays can also substantially impair the respondent's ability to view and comprehend the opinion data.
The integrity and accuracy of online opinion research systems can also be adversely affected by data packets being lost during the transmission. Generally speaking, IP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) environments cannot guarantee network reliability. Data packets can be lost or delayed for a variety of reasons, such as bandwidth congestion, unavailable routes, defective Internet engines, and the like. If a data packet is lost, the only way to retrieve it is to request the originator to retransmit the data packet.
This, of course, would add additional delays to receiving the opinion data, thus degrading the quality of the network and providing an unsuitable medium for real time communications.
What is needed is a system and method for internetworking real time opinion research data that overcomes the above problems.